1/5/2005 4:40:00 PM GMT
Source: AFP
One of the two female members of the French Council for the Muslim Religion, Dounia Bouzar, has tendered her resignation stating the body had failed in tackling the problems faced by the country's Muslim population, estimated to be some 5 million.
Bouzar's frustrations stem from what she feels is lack of affirmative action by the body. "For two years now I have been waiting for discussions to begin, but we never talked about anything. I don't see what qualified people like me are there for. All they talk about is procedures, who gets what positions, and the modalities of the elections which will take place in June," she said. "I do not see why I should continue with a mere walk-on part."
A respected anthropologist, Bouzar has widely written on the problems facing Muslims in assimilating themselves with different cultures. Her appointment as a member of the council, two years after it was first set up, came after another female member, Betoule Lambiotte, had resigned from her position.
Bouzar believes the problems the council faces are due to it being dominated by male members who were born outside of France and therefore are strongly influenced by links to their countries of origin. Furthermore, she feels that the younger generations of French-born Muslims are not adequately represented.
"My great regret is that the CFCM did not seize the extraordinary opportunity we had two years ago, when all the conditions were right for creating a new sense of Muslim religious consciousness, adapted to French secularism," she said.
"Young Muslims born in France cannot turn to foreign countries to find an answer to the key question - what does it mean to be a Muslim in a secular country - because none of those countries is secular. It was up to the CFCM to start the debate," she said.
The council was set up under the initiation of former minister of interior Nicolas Sarkozy who felt that a formal contact point between the government and the large Muslim community in France was needed. However, the council has been hindered by internal squabbling in the run-up to the elections scheduled for later this year.
Bouzar has accused the institution of failing to tackle and properly respond to the law banning the Islamic headscarf and other religious symbols in schools saying "Instead of tackling the basic issue, the CFCM decreed that the headscarf was a religious duty, thus concluding a debate that has not even been decided in Muslim countries. And they did that before calling for the law to be respected."
Dalil Boubakeur, the president of the CFCM and rector of the main mosque in Paris, said he "regretted" Bouzar's resignation.